Dancing Accross the Blades
by green eyed tiger
Summary: A girl on the run, people in pursuit, wants to know why, and everything that comes with it. A thriller, a riddle, and a war. Was exciting to write! Some light romance.
1. Running

She ran. The wind was cutting through her insufficient clothing as she darted around the trees and over boulders. The chill caused cold emotionless tears to caress down her expressionless face. She ran but she was running out of breath. She had to find a place to hide. Behind a tree may be enough. Yes, behind a tree. But not now; they were too close.

She expected to be coming close to the edge of a mountain. There, she will hide. The terrain became more uneven and large boulders protruded from the ground.

She skipped quietly to the side parallel to the mountain and stopped. She drew her dagger and held it close to her heart as if she wanted it to hear her quickened heartbeat, to understand what she was going through. She could hear her pursuers, evidently not trying to hide their presence. They didn't need to. There was four of them and only one of her. All she had to do was remain silent while they went to search the innumerable caves.

She smiled to herself. Yes, this was a good plan.

"We'll go see the first few caves while you stay here Damerk. Take precaution to anything out of the ordinary. This is no normal person we're dealing with."

Kesodra grinned at the praise but then frowned. "Why did they want me so badly?" she thought to herself.

The men started their way up the slope while Kesodra tried to find a means of escape without arousing suspicion from this "Damerk." She looked to the ground and began making surreptitious steps towards the next tree. And then the next. Growing more confident, she looked up and saw him looking opposite her direction, mumbling to himself. "Probably about not being allowed to join in the fun. But no one's going to have fun today." She thought smiling.

She began moving farther away, just to get away, when a twig snapped beneath her feet! She was sure that the others in the caves must have heard it. The sound seemed to echo in the soundless forest air. She spun around towards Damerk and pressed herself against the tree. He had not seen her but was looking directly towards her. She turned, her back to the tree, dagger in hand. "I dare you to come closer Damerk." She hissed inaudibly. She could hear him approach.

* * *

the next chapter will be longer than this and it won't be long before i post it. plz hang in there with me!!


	2. Hunter into Hunted

She could hear him approach. "Who's there?!" He yelled. He was too loud. The others would hear him and come to see what was wrong. Kesodra held her breath and looked around, desperate to find anything. "Who's there?" Damerk pronounced even louder. Not sure about what she was doing, she audibly shuffled her feet. She found a twig and purposely snapped it. Let him come. He won't even have time to scream.

Only a moment later, he was on the opposite side of the tree and was coming up beside her. She pulled her wool scarf over the front of her face and tied it tighter so that it wouldn't fall. As soon as she saw the front of his blue shirt, she leaped out at him. She knocked him off balance, pinned him against the nearest tree, and rested her blade against his exposed throat in one fluid movement.

"Don't move. Don't even breathe if you don't want the movement in your throat to scar you—or worse." Kesodra saw fear in his sunken blue eyes now open as wide as they could go; they had a cold, indifferent fear in them. She laughed, "I won't kill you if you're good."

Damerk glanced at her from eye to eye, his chin held up, not out of pride but out of his fear of steel. The light was dim and her scarf hooded her eyes so that he couldn't see them. What would she do to him? _Should I scream? No she means this, especially after what we're doing to her._

She spun him around before he could think; "Keep your hands where I can see them and don't try anything. A little pressure is all it takes for this knife to do my bidding." She undid the buckle that twined a thick leather strap that held his quiver of bow and arrows. She felt him for any other weapons; she found none. "Now walk in front of me and don't slow me down; I'll continue to walk and this knife is at your back."

They continued at a slow pace for nearly an hour when Kesodra said, "Sorry." She hit him on the head with the dull end of her dagger and he moaned once as he fell unconscious, face forward, onto the mossy earth. She tied his hands behind his back quickly because she was expecting him to wake up soon. She had not hit him too hard, but hard enough to make the area swell.

She turned him on his back and slapped him awake. "Uh, lea' me alone!" Damerk grunted dumbly and followed his statment with a train of cursing. Then he recognized her, "You!" The young man jerked awkwardly and squirmed defenselessly. His legs kicked the air and made a hard contact with her shin. She kicked his side just as hard back and then he noticed that it was going to be no use.

Kesodra took out her dagger and flipped it in her hand casually. "You know I didn't want you to hear me because then I wouldn't need to deal with your hindering presence. But first, we will keep moving till sundown." She paused, "Well get up!" When she saw that he made no movement to get up she said, "You know I'm very gifted at knife throwing. Just get up and make things simple."

He took this shame as a blow to his honor and him being from Hembarrow, honor was not taken lightly. _I have shamed myself already by not fighting back and had this _girl_ guide me with a knife. Father was right; I am not fit for this. But no more! _"They will notice my absance if they haven't already. They'll find us and take you!" he sneered not at all taking head her warning.

The next second, her dagger was an inch away from his ear. His surprise left him paralyzed and she pinned his shoulder with her foot. "Don't give me problems and I mean it."

He noticed she was now unarmed and he seized his opportunity. _No more will I be disgraced. _Before Kesodra could think his legs came up and around her knees and brought her crashing down over his torso. Both knocked out of breath, neither moved for a moment. Damerk willed himself to sit up quickly, wanting to get the embedded knife to free him from his bondage, but he stopped noticed that the scarf had come a bit loose. She opened her eyes and saw him staring at her. A few rays of light broke through the forest canopy and landed upon her eyes. Their brilliant green showed depth and energy.

Casting aside any pain she felt, she stood up and tightened the scarf around her face. _He had not seen my face_, she thought to herself. And indeed he had not. The way she had looked at him in defiance caused time to seem frozen for Damerk. Why had she not just killed him? "Why didn't you kill me? Why don't you kill me and be over with it?"

She cocked her head to the side and thought a bit. "It would be a shame to waste a life, wouldn't you think? Well, at least until I find out a few things." Damerk had no answer. He noticed the dagger was back in her hands and decided to do as she asked. They walked with Kesodra in the rear and they went the full day in silence. She had made sure they had left no trail of any sort.

The chilling weather got even colder in the sun's absence. Kesodra started a small fire that would not give away their position. After much threatening and attempts, she was able to tie Damerk firmly to the trunk of a tree.

"Cold isn't it? You know I have no blankets." She paused when she received no reply. Damerk was looking away as if being tied to a tree was normal. Her voice grew cold. "So you prefer that I get directly into the fruit of the conversation. Why are you and those men chasing me?"


	3. Answers and Gotta Go

At first, Damerk did not answer but he turned his head to look at her; this girl's eyes showed none of the emotion that he had heard in her voice. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, causing a dissipating cloud in the cold twilight air. The fire flipped and dance across the wasting logs of wood. The young man stared into the fire as he sought after the right words.

"I probably only know as much as you do. So…"

"Well for that matter you must not know anything about why you're after me or why in the world I deserve to go through this!"

"I'd prefer not to…"

"Look Damerk," Kesodra paused to study the look of confusion that slowly came across his face as he noticed that she knows his name. "The sooner you tell me what you know, the sooner…" She paused to think of a reason he should look forward to being left alone. She noticed a stitching on the shoulder of his shirt and identified it as the Hembarrow insignia. _Their dignity is more precious than life for these people and I have hurt his profusely. I'd better be careful. What is worse than being threatened and unable to fight back: being held captive and walking with a knife to your back. _"…the sooner you'll be free of my subordinate yet overpowering presence, no?"

He sighed inwardly. _She's right. Grom was right too—this is no ordinary person. _"Actually, I don't even know your name. Though I know a bit about you but no more than you know about yourself."

Amusement filled Kesodra's eyes at the fact that he did not know her name. "Then please tell me what makes me the center of so many people's thoughts."

"Well you were raised in an aristocratic family in Latma Sim and your mother the daughter of a duke. Am I correct? You were taken away for a year to study in a boarding school, and when you came back, found your family, home, and town no more. That's what I know about your life. About you, all I know is that you have…how shall I say it…envied abilities and are, potentially, a threat."

A pause hung in the air, letting these facts get digested. Kesodra's eyes brimmed with tears at the mention of her agonizing past; however, she blinked them back. Damerk not aware of the sentimental moment ranted on. "You see? Only what you know. Now I have…"

"Just clarify for me a few points. You are lacking in the knowledge of my name and yet know such an extent of my life? How do you know one but not the other?"

Damerk sighed irritatedly, "I was never told. I'm not an important part of this. I overheard what I know."

_You might just be. _"And what of my powers do you know of?"

"You expect me to know that?"

_No I guess not._

"So what would you do if you caught me?"

"Well after a certain age, your power can be channeled for another's uses. That's all. I don't know the details. So I also know that your not that old. I'm guessing…sixteen."

This was overwhelming for Kesodra. She leaned back against the tree behind her and thought about the newly acquired information. And it was true; she would soon turn seventeen.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Damerk said, "Hey…umm…you know… I gotta go."

"You're not going anywhere. I'll be leaving you in the morning so that the others can find you."

"No, I mean I _gotta go_."

Then she understood and her cheeks went red under her scarf. "Then I'm leaving now. You can scream for those people with you but…this is not something I will deal with." Kesodra got up and gathered her things including her new bow and arrows. "I'm leaving the fire for you. I hope we never have to meet again." She said simply smiling and curtsying mockingly. She turned to leave him in his dire situation unable to do anything about it.

Kesodra had long left when Damerk began to be desperate about relieving himself. He screamed as if his life depended upon it. An hour or so the others found him and he was close to tears. He was screaming like a mad man, "Untie me!!!!!!!! Untie me!!!!!!" So without further investigation they untied him as he ran behind the nearest tree and answered the call of nature safely.

His knees where knocking against each other from fatigue and relief when he confronted the men. "What in Mondar's name do ya tink yer doin'? What is this bein' tied to a tree." Said a burley man by the name of Galvin, cuffing him lightly at the neck.

"Well I just find it amusing to tie myself at the base of a tree and just sit there and not do anything about needing to go…"

"Shut up! We know what you needed to do! I don't want to here any excuses. You disgrace will tell us what happened!" There leader Grom bellowed over the murmuring voices.

"She… she put a knife to my neck and…the one you were after …and she knocked me unconscious and bound my hands. There was nothing I could do! I managed to kick her a few times but she…she…threatened me with her knife. I slowed her d…"

"Enough! You truly are a disgrace to the Hembarrow clan. Tell us everything about her."

"Well…" he thought of telling them about her eyes but something held him back, "a rough brown scarf was tied around her face. She is this much shorter than me," he held up his hands to show about six inches, "and her voice is as young as…I would say sixteen to eighteen years."

"That really helped." Guffawed Galvin, "so if we see her we'll be able ta single her outa a crowd."

Grom held up a stern hand to silence Galvin. "The least help you can be to us now is to tell us which way she went in." Embaressed and ashamed, Damerk pointed towards the east. "Then we will travel west." Grom said confidently.

"Bu' the boi jus' said…" Galvin began.

"You forget we are not dealing with an ordinary person. Move!"


End file.
